With the exception of elderberries (available only in the wild), dark autumn fruits are easily obtainable. Blueberries and blackberries have joined the ranks of cultivated fruits to provide a regular yet varied seasonal larder.

Damsons inhabit a halfway house: although grown on a domestic scale, and with a short season, they are on sale (at £1.49 per 500g) in about 150 branches of Sainsbury's . Among their suppliers is Jill Mycock of Mockbeggar Farm in Kent, who grows Shropshire and Farleigh varieties at what is now the end of the season. Her annual 20 tons are picked directly into the punnet to avoid excessive handling. The fruit can be held for a couple of weeks at low temperature without spoilage, and can be frozen at home. Damsons come to little harm in the short term, so it is worth buying more than you need whenever you come across them.

Around 60 tons of blackberries are also part of Mockbeggar's output, with the tangy, monster-sized Loch Ness variety and sweeter Triple Crown now in season (£1.29 for 250g). Sainsbury's also sells Turkish figs (four for £1), purple plums from Spain and Israel (£1.99 per kg), and cultivated English blueberries from Kent and Herefordshire (99p per 125g).

Further north, John Cushing at Goldstone Hall, Market Drayton, Shropshire (01630 661 202) neatly combines a seasonal glut, a quiet time in the restaurant calendar and a local tradition in his Damson Feast. Market Drayton once had a damson fair in September, when mill owners would buy as much as they could transport in order to extract a dye for the textile industry. The fair has gone, but Goldstone Hall's five-course Damson Feast, held on 13 October (£22) and 14 October (£25), incorporates roast goose with damson chutney, damson ice cream, elderberry tart and blackberry crème brlée.

Further north still, if the weather has been kind in the past few days, there may still be some damsons available (for 65p per lb) at the the Lyth Valley Farm Shop, Dawson Fold, Cumbria (01539 568 248, closed Monday). Harvesting the fruit is not the easiest job in the word, but owner Christine Walling's 70-year-old picker has more than enough experience, and is able to collect 200lb on a good day. 'Heaven knows what I'll do if he pops his clogs.'

Other sources of purple fruits include PYO and farm shops, one of the latter being The Kitchen Garden, Oldown Estate, Tockington, near Bristol (01454 413 605). The damson and blackberry season is virtually over, but Robert Bernays expects to have some dark plums at around 70p per lb. What variety? 'It sounds pathetic, but I don't know,' he says: his Victorian walled garden was stocked with plums when he bought it 20 years ago, and they didn't have labels.

The most comprehensive collection of plums in the country is kept by Brogdale Horticultural Trust, Brogdale Road, Faversham, Kent (01795 535 286), a living archive dedicated to promoting the natural diversity of temperate fruits. It is open every day (£2.50 for a guided tour), sells fruit on site and supplies Waitrose.